1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to ink jet printing apparatus of the type using insertable print/cartridges and more particularly to adjustable print/cartridge interface constructions for providing alternative printing capabilities in such apparatus.
2. Description of Background Art
There are known drop-on-demand ink jet printer systems in which a print head carriage bearing a print head traverses across the width of a print medium in line printing operation. Between line printing sequences, the print medium is advanced to prepare for the next sequence. One useful approach for such printing systems is to construct the print head element as part of a disposable print/cartridge which contains an ink supply, drop-generating structures and electrical connections adapted for coupling to the printer, which provides drop-generating energy to such an inserted print/cartridge.
Commonly assigned and concurrently filed U.S. patent application Ser. No. 945,136, entitled "Ink Jet Printer for Cooperatively Printing with a Plurality of Insertable Print/Cartridges", by M. Piatt describes a highly useful approach for ink jet printing with a plurality of insertable print/cartridges. In general, that approach employs the physical positioning of each inserted print/cartridge so that its linear orifice array is aligned: (i) precisely perpendicular to the direction of line traverse, (ii) at a precise distance from a reference surface parallel to the direction of line traverse and (iii) at a generally predetermined spacing from the printing zone. These aspects of the Piatt approach prevents printing artifacts caused by misalignments of the cooperative print/cartridges in the vertical page direction. To prevent artifacts due to misalignments along the horizontal page direction, the Piatt approach utilizes detections of the relative transverse locations of the linear orifice arrays of inserted print/cartridges and coordination of the print/cartridges printing actuations based on such detections. One particularly useful application for this multi-print/cartridge system is to allow printing with a plurality of different color inks, e.g. for pictures, graphics or combinations of such material with text.
Concurrently filed U.S. application Ser. No. 945,133, entitled "High Resolution, Print/Cartridge, Ink Jet Printer", discloses a printer having print/cartridge interface constructions that allow printing of high resolution output with a plurality of lower resolution print/cartridges by physically positioning the orifice arrays of the print/cartridges to print in interlaced cooperation during a traverse of their carriage across a line of the print media. This technique employs a precise physical position of the print/cartridge orifice plate (and thus their orifice arrays) by indexing the orifice plate edges onto carriage referencing surfaces that are precisely offset in the vertical direction, vis-a-vis the horizontal print zone of the printer.